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Pros and Cons of Rodent Exclusion

By Chris Williams on February 14, 2014.

John Maher: Hi. My name is John Maher. Today I’m here with Zack Ciras, a service technician at Colonial Pest, a pest control company serving eastern Massachusetts, and southern New Hampshire, and Maine.

Today we’re talking about the pros and cons of rodent exclusion. Welcome, Zack.

Zack Ciras: Thanks, John.

John: Zack, what are the reasons why a complete rodent exclusion on my house may not be possible?

Zack: If there are major structural concerns with the home, we might not be able to address that. A licensed contractor would be the better person to call.

If there’s a rubble foundation, or maybe even if there’s a low‑lying deck attached to the back of the house that we might not be able to get underneath or take apart safely and put it back together, those areas we can’t access.

If we can access the sills from the inside, and we can close up any holes from the inside, that’s great. But there are some cases where we just don’t feel like we can give you the best job. We want the best for your house.

John: If a complete rodent exclusion can’t be performed on my house, what are some of the alternatives?

Zack: We can do a pretty good job with a partial exclusion of the house. Close up all the areas we can’t do the full job, except for certain areas that we of course will let you know about.

We maintain baits and other controls inside the house to give you a long‑term control and help prevent mice from coming into certain areas. We try to limit their access.

John: Do baits go on the inside of the house, or do they go on the outside to try to keep them away?

Zack: We do have some exterior bait stations. We can use those in some certain instances. The interior baiting program is probably preferred though.

John: Why should I consider a rodent exclusion over these traditional mouse baiting techniques?

Zack: Mice in the house is a problem. Rats in the house is a big problem. Squirrels is even a bigger problem. We want to solve the problem. Solving your problem really consists of excluding them, preventing them from coming into the house in the first place.

It will give you a long‑term, almost indefinite protection from these rodents, on the house for a good long time.

John: Does that make it more cost effective in the long‑run to basically get the rodent exclusion done, and then prevent these rodents from getting into the house?

Zack: Yes. It’s not a cheap process. We’re very fair. We time it out by time of how long it’s going to take. We’re very fair with the materials.

We use the highest‑end materials though. We want to make sure it’s going to last.

Over time you’re going to save a lot more money not having to treat every six months or year for mice and rats coming in the house.

John: What are some of the issues, you might have with mice getting into the home?

Zack: You don’t want them in your house. They leave a lot of droppings, micro droppings of urine everywhere. They carry LCMV, Hantavirus, Lyme, different disease, and food borne illnesses.

Rodents, especially house mice and rats, it’s what we call commensal. That means they share our table, and we don’t want to share our table.

John: Right. What can I expect immediately following the work?

Zack: If we’re talking about mice, then you might have a little bit of activity three to five days after the treatment’s completed.

We do put out rodenticides, usually before we do the exclusion, but that takes a little, three to five days after they consume the rodenticides for it to kill them.

If it’s larger animals, sometimes we install one‑way doors they can get out but can’t get back in before we fully seal the holes. If it’s rats, we might actually put up some traps and come back and remove those animals.

John: OK. What can I expect in the future, a little more long term?

Zack: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

John: That would be great.

Zack: Yeah.

John: Basically, once you’re able to do a complete rodent exclusion, we can really expect that rodents aren’t going to get back into my house.

Zack: Yes, it’s a realistic expectation. A lot of people just think it’s not possible, but we make it possible. We give a good long warranty upfront, and it extends past the stated warranty. It’s a really good program.

John: Great. How do I know if the rodent exclusion worked or not? What are some of the things to look for?

Zack: The evidence that you’ve been seeing or hearing in the past, when you have had rodents in the house, will just cease to be.

Any kind of scratching in the walls, in the attic, droppings in the kitchen counters or anything like that, that will just stop. You won’t see anything like that.

John: OK. All right. Zack, thanks very much for speaking with me.

Zack: Thank you, John.

John: For more information, you can visit the website at ColonialPest.com or call 1‑800‑525‑8084 for a free quote.